January 25th, 2017

James Galvin was raised in northern Colorado. He has published eight collections of poetry, most recently EVERYTHING WE ALWAYS KNEW WAS TRUE (Copper Canyon, 2016). He is also the author of the critically acclaimed prose book THE MEADOW, and the novel FENCING THE SKY. His honors include a Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Award, a Lannan Literary Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Ingram Merrill Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He has a home and some horses outside of Tie Siding, Wyoming, and is a member of the permanent faculty of the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

February 28th, 2017

For over thirty years, Mary Bisbee-Beek has been immersed in the world of books and literature, serving at different times as editor, publicist, and marketing consultant. She will talk to students about the world of publishing books – and the state it’s in, today. She will discuss what book publicity is, and what a potential career in the literary arena might look like, today, and in ten years.

March 7th, 2017

Rosalie Moffett is the author ofJune in Eden, winner of The Journal/Wheeler prize, forthcoming from OSU Press in 2017. Her poems and essays have appeared in Tin House, AGNI, Ploughshares, Kenyon Review, the anthology “Gathered: Contemporary Quaker Poets,” and elsewhere. She is a former Wallace Stegner Fellow, and the winner of the “Discovery” / Boston Review prize as well as the Ploughshares Emerging Writer prize. A Lewis & Clark alumnus, Rosalie received her MFA from Purdue University.

March 15th, 2017

Derrick Austin is the author of Trouble the Water (BOA Editions), selected by Mary Szybist for the 2015 A Poulin Jr Prize. He is a Cave Canem fellow. His work has appeared in Best American Poetry 2015, Image: A Journal of Arts and Religion, New England Review, Callaloo, Nimrod, Puerto Del Sol, and elsewhere. Currently, he is the Ron Wallace Fellow at the University of Wisconsin.

April 6th, 2017

Michael Ondaatje is one of the world’s foremost writers – his artistry and aesthetic have influenced an entire generation of writers and readers. Although he is best known as a novelist, Ondaatje’s work also encompasses poetry, memoir, and film, and reveals a passion for defying conventional form. His transcendent novel The English Patient explores the stories of people history fails to reveal by intersecting four diverse lives atthe end of World War II. This bestselling novel was later made into an Academy Award-winning film.

As the sun began to set on a balmy summer day in Southern California, an Electra cruise ship motored past luxury yachts, sailboats, and multimillion-dollar homes in Newport Harbor. On deck, a wedding ceremony was in progress. Philip Bradley B.S. ’59 pronounced the happy couple husband and wife, smiling as they sealed their union with a kiss.

Nestled in a rustic campground at the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in New York state, Susan Kirtley B.A. ’95 fiddled with her tape recorder. The hot, still air seemed to magnify her nervousness as she sat down to interview noted comic artist Lynda Barry.

After four decades, Rocky Blumhagen returned to the Lewis & Clark stage in June. Partnering with Susannah Mars and the Portland Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Maestro Yaki Bergman, he performed his latest fundraising revue, “Oh, Those Gershwin Boys!”

On a summer day in 2007, Bjorn Hinrichs B.A. ’94 and his 3-year-old son, Sawyer, were exploring the front yard of their Lake Oswego, Oregon, home—digging in the dirt, turning over rocks, and inspecting bugs. A noisy bird with a red head and fluffy red chest flew in and landed. Sawyer was captivated—and curious.

When Christy Hale’s B.A. ’77, M.A.T. ’80 daughter was a baby, she remembers watching her make brightly colored pyramids out of stacking rings. “Turned upside down, the stack of rings resembled Frank Lloyd Wright’s design for the Guggenheim Museum in New York City,” thought Hale.

Under the stone arches of Sant’Eufemia, a 12th-century church in Spoleto, Italy, Grant Herreid took up his lute. His fingers moved deftly across the strings, plucking a melody line that may have been familiar to the church’s first parishioners.